JOSE MOURINHO says he feels uncomfortable about his Tottenham ace Gareth Bale going away with Wales – because their assistant manager works for bitter rivals Arsenal.
Albert Stuivenberg, who is also No2 to Gunners boss Mikel Arteta, will help caretaker Robert Page with the Dragons squad next week after regular gaffer Ryan Giggs’ arrest for an alleged assault.
But Spurs boss Mourinho is worried his loan star Bale will not be cared for properly on his return to international football following injury.
He said: “It’s not Giggs responsible for these matches and I’m sorry about it. Because for the previous fixtures he called me, we spoke about Ben Davies – not Gareth because Gareth was not there – and we shared opinions on the situation, which is probably not going to happen this time.
“And the fact that one of the coaches is an Arsenal coach does not make me very comfortable. Honestly, it doesn’t make me very comfortable.
“National team matches should have coaches that work exclusively for them, not coaches who work for other clubs.”
Wales take on the USA in a friendly at Swansea on Thursday before Nations League clashes in Cardiff against the Republic of Ireland on Sunday and Finland on Wednesday.
Bale, 31, missed the last international break due to a knee injury and has made just one Premier League start since rejoining Tottenham from Real Madrid in September on a season loan.
After coming off the bench to score the winner in Spurs’ 2-1 win over Brighton last Sunday, he played another 65 minutes on Thursday as he made his third Europa League start in the 3-1 win at Ludogorets Razgrad in Bulgaria.
Bale, having been frozen out at Real Madrid for nearly two years under Zinedine Zidane, is slowly rebuilding his fitness and Mourinho clearly does not want his progress ruined by Wales and their Arsenal coach Stuivenberg.
Spurs host the Gunners in the North London derby three weeks after the international break on December 5.
Bale is set to join up with his international team-mates after Tottenham’s Prem clash at West Brom on Sunday.
Mourinho said: “He’s getting better and better and on Thursday I felt he could play 90 minutes.
“But it’s not about can or cannot, it’s about managing the situation and keeping him safe. Because he’s a player that needs to be safe, he’s a player that had enough problems in the past.
“He’s working so much and we’re all working so carefully with him that we don’t want to destroy the work everybody is doing for the last couple of months.
“Wales has two matches where they play for the Nations League and I expect him to play. But if they care as much about him as we do, they have to manage the recovery period.
“They have to manage how many days’ rest between one match and another. They have to manage the minutes that he plays and they should not let him get to fatigue levels.”
